Method and system for usage analyzer that determines user accessed sources, indexes data subsets, and associated metadata, processing implicit queries based on potential interest to users
Patent 7162473 Issued on January 9, 2007. Estimated Expiration Date: 
June 26, 2023. Estimated Expiration Date is calculated based on simple USPTO term provisions. It does not account for terminal disclaimers, term adjustments, failure to pay maintenance fees, or other factors which might affect the term of a patent.
June 26, 2023. Estimated Expiration Date is calculated based on simple USPTO term provisions. It does not account for terminal disclaimers, term adjustments, failure to pay maintenance fees, or other factors which might affect the term of a patent.Patent ReferencesSelective delivery of electronic messages in a multiple computer system based on context and environment of a user System for granting ownership of device by user based on requested level of ownership, present state of the device, and the context of the device Method for granting a user request having locational and contextual attributes consistent with user policies for devices having locational attributes consistent with the user request Method for triggering selected machine event when the triggering properties of the system are met and the triggering conditions of an identified user are perceived Method for selectively performing event on computer controlled device whose location and allowable operation is consistent with the contextual and locational attributes of the event Object oriented information retrieval framework mechanism Specifying and establishing communication data paths between particular media devices in multiple media device computing systems based on context of a user or users Patent #: 5812865 Inventors
AssigneeApplicationNo. 10607228 filed on 06/26/2003US Classes:707/5, Query augmenting and refining (e.g., inexact access)707/3, Query processing (i.e., searching)707/10, Distributed or remote access707/102, Generating database or data structure (e.g., via user interface)715/811, Based on usage or user profile (e.g., frequency of use)715/963, Calendar or scheduling715/968, Interface for database querying and retrieval715/512, Annotation control715/513, Structured document (e.g., HTML, SGML, ODA, CDA)704/1, LINGUISTICS709/231, Computer-to-computer data streaming709/223, COMPUTER NETWORK MANAGING709/224, Computer network monitoring705/51, Usage protection of distributed data files707/104.1, Application of database or data structure (e.g., distributed, multimedia, image)705/26, Electronic shopping (e.g., remote ordering)706/21, Prediction715/747, End user based (e.g., preference setting)704/9Natural languageExaminersPrimary: Channavajjala, SriramaAttorney, Agent or FirmForeign Patent References
International ClassesG06F 17/30G06F 17/00 ClaimsWhat is claimed is: 1. A system that facilitates concurrent searching across a plurality of sources, comprising: a usage analyzer that determines user accessed items and a content analyzer thatstores subsets of data corresponding to the items and sparse representations of the subsets, at least two of the items being associated with disparate sources, respectively, the disparate sources comprise local or remote data locations including files,folders, applications, images, audio files, appointments, email, and web information; an indexing component that indexes the data subsets and associates metadata with the accessed items, the metadata employed to retrieve the accessed items, and whereinthe metadata includes at least one of a file path, a hyperlink, and a tag; a filter that extracts portions of the accessed items and creates sparse representations of accessed data in a content index; a search component that in response to a searchquery, initiates a search across the indexed data and outputs search results in the form of data, wherein the data includes documents, files, folders, applications, images, email, web information and links to locations of a subset and sparserepresentation of the subset; an implicit query that is derived from the search query; and a component to process implicit queries based upon potential interest to a user. 2. The system of claim 1, further comprising a gatherer component that specifies an interface to different content sources in their native format. 3. The system of claim 1, the filter decodes individual file formats and emits a character stream for further processing. 4. The system of claim 3, further comprising a tokenizer component that breaks the character stream into words and provides linguistic processing. 5. The system of claim 4, the linguistic processing includes at least one of date normalization and stemming. 6. The system of claim 1, further comprising a retriever component supporting a query language for accessing stored information. 7. The system of claim 6, the retriever component provides Boolean functions and best match retrieval on full text and metadata properties that enable at least one of phrase, wildcard and proximity searches. 8. The system of claim 1, further comprising a protocol handler to extract individual messages from exchange mail stores, local mail files, and public folders. 9. The system of claim 8, further comprising a component index attachments to email, which generalizes to other container objects. 10. The system of claim 1, further comprising an event component that monitors user and makes determinations with respect to user actions. 11. The system of claim 10, the event component includes to determine user actions or goals. 12. The system of claim 11, the event component employs evidential patterns of user activity including at least one of: a Focus of attention, an Introspection, an Undesired piece of information, and a Domain-specific syntactic and semanticcontent. 13. The system of claim 1, the implicit queries automatically invoke related information actions directed to a user, the information actions associated with a query at hand or a current context. 14. The system of claim 13, further comprising at least one of context-sensitive queries, application-context queries, and item-centric integrations. 15. The system of claim 1, further comprising a component that enables users to share selected electronic files with other users. 16. The system of claim 1, further comprising a component to remove accessed information items. 17. The system of claim 1, the search component employs effective time computations when presenting calendar items. 18. The system of claim 1, further comprising a component to perform background storage operations to processes volatile data. 19. The system of claim 1, at least one of the usage analyzer and the indexer is executed on at least one of a client machine and a server machine, the client and server machines including at least one computer respectively. 20. A computer readable medium having computer readable instructions stored thereon for implementing at least one of the usage analyzer and the indexer of claim 1. 21. A method that facilitates concurrent searching across a plurality of sources, comprising: automatically monitoring a user and automatically analyzing a data source to determine whether the user has contemplated the data source; automatically determining whether the user has contemplated the data source selected from at least two disparate data sources; automatically storing subsets of data corresponding to the data source and sparse representations of the subsets; automatically indexing the contemplated data source in a computerized index and associating metadata with the contemplated data source, the metadata employed to retrieve the contemplated data sources, and wherein the metadata includes at least one of afile path, a hyperlink, and a tag; automatically filtering the contemplated data source and creating sparse representations of the contemplated data source; automatically initiating a search across the indexed data in response to a search query; automatically outputting search results in the form of data, wherein the data includes documents, files, folders, applications, images, email, web information and links to locations of a subset and sparse representation of the subset; automaticallyderiving an implicit query from the search query; and automatically processing implicit queries based upon potential interest to a user. 22. The method of claim 21, further comprising providing at least one of explicit query options and implicit query options to access the computerized index. 23. The method of claim 21, further comprising automatically updating a metadata file associated with the data source with at least one of explicit tag information and implicit tag information. 24. The method of claim 21, further comprising providing at least one of a file sharing option, a file scrubbing option, an effective time computation, and a background storage option. 25. The method of claim 21, further comprising displaying at least one of a timeline visualization and a grid visualization to represent queries derived from the computerized index. 26. A system that facilitates concurrent searching across a plurality of sources comprising: means for determining when a user has accessed an information item; means for filtering the information item; means for storing subsets of datacorresponding to the information item and sparse representations of the subsets, at least two of the items being associated with disparate sources, such as local and remote data sources; means for indexing the subsets of data and sparse representationsof the subsets in a content index and associating metadata with the information item, the metadata employed to retrieve the information item, and wherein the metadata includes at least one of a file path, a hyperlink, and a tag; means for querying thecontent index; means for initiating a search across the indexed data in response to the query; means for outputting search results in the form of data, wherein the data includes documents, files, folders, applications, images, email, web informationand links to locations of a subset and sparse representation of the subset; means for deriving an implicit query from the search query; and means for processing implicit queries based upon potential interest to a user. Other References
Field of SearchDistributed or remote accessObject-oriented database structure reference Object-oriented database structure Application of database or data structure (e.g., distributed, multimedia, image) Manipulating data structure (e.g., compression, compaction, compilation) DATABASE SCHEMA OR DATA STRUCTURE Generating database or data structure (e.g., via user interface) Object-oriented database structure network Object-oriented database structure processing FILE OR DATABASE MAINTENANCE Based on usage or user profile (e.g., frequency of use) Preselection (e.g., best guess before mouse click) Default selection item Limited time selection opportunity Sizing modification (e.g., scaling) Partial input lookup (e.g., partial string lookup) Context location indication (e.g., previous or next menu item indication) Simultaneous next and previous indication (e.g., menu road map) Next menu indication Navigation within structure Calendar or scheduling Interface for database querying and retrieval NETWORK COMPUTER CONFIGURING Reconfiguring Initializing COMPUTER NETWORK MANAGING Computer network monitoring Computer network access regulating Network resource allocating |
